Saturday, August 22, 2015

Niarja Memories: Ion Fields & Explosions

Anti-Ganking transcends corporations and alliances. Although the motivations, means and objectives can be different, the result is ultimately the same type of gameplay.

It is implemented in the game itself: just like other forms of Highsec PvP (Suicide ganking, Wardecs etc), fighting criminals within the borders of CCP's Crimewatch mechanics is a perfect example of intended gameplay. Some people do it because they can, others do it because they want to prevent a gank, while some do it to annoy their enemies.

''There's another nullsec group that used to do freighter ganks. We don't like them, so we used to ruin their ganks & save their targets. This nullsec group doesn't gank anymore.''

-Mallak Azaria/GoonWaffeReading the above statement brought back lovely memories. It was fun (and ironic) to stop ganks with Goon Anti-Gankers in Niarja back when Confederation of xXPIZZAXx's public gank fleet tried to kill freighters with fail-fit Catalysts.Not only Goonswarm Federation, but also people from Gentlemen's Agreement, Devil's Warrior Alliance, Sev3rance, random neutrals, regular Anti-Gankers, Industrial corps were all contributing to this player-generated gameplay.

People from a variety of backgrounds could be seen: Some preferred to enforce GankerJamming™, others applied tracking disruption, while some brought suicide Griffins with ECM Bursts. ECM presence, however, was already dominating the scene with its excellent ganker-tear collecting capabilities.﻿[ 2013.10.16 19:12:34 ] nuggt007 > Niarja all pvper get ya buts to Niarja now gogogogogogogog

More people started making their way to Niarja as soon as the first reports and intel about ganked freighters was heard. Some freighters were already down and more gank attempts were highly expected. Several ECM ships were also on the scene already.[ 2013.10.16 19:29:15 ] Dertay O'haray > so what was just attacked?﻿[ 2013.10.16 19:30:08 ] Jane Kimble > prob another freighter﻿[ 2013.10.16 19:30:20 ] NearNihil > yep, an obelisk to be more precise﻿[ 2013.10.16 19:30:51 ] Vena Saris > resistance is futile﻿[ 2013.10.16 19:31:18 ] Vena Saris > PL CHARON﻿[ 2013.10.16 19:31:22 ] Vena Saris > PLEASE GET IT PIZZA﻿[ 2013.10.16 19:31:26 ] Vena Saris > headed to MAD GATE﻿[ 2013.10.16 19:31:27 ] Dertay O'haray > can you link kill mail ? : )﻿[ 2013.10.16 19:32:12 ] Theophilas > trying﻿[ 2013.10.16 19:32:13 ] Theophilas > lol﻿[ 2013.10.16 19:35:04 ] Dertay O'haray > no kill mail on the freighter kill?I remember seeing the beautiful lines of the Machariel which was now ramming into the next target. It was Krissada, a legendary freighter bumper.

Image Source: Personal screenshot collection

"He set a collision course with the fat greedy bitch, who was now, so plump full of ore. Thrusters exploded to life and giant plumes of exhaust flames erupted from them. At acceleratingly horrific speeds the Machariel was sent screaming towards it’s target."

-Jaxi WreckfulWith each bump, the freighter (and soon the Catalysts) were going beyond even my Scorpion's good optimal jamming range, so I had to do more than my best to approach them as quickly as possible before the Catalysts land on grid.

Image Source: evepics.wordpress.com

[ 2013.10.16 19:18:15 ] (notify) Aaaarrgg: You have foolishly engaged in criminal activity within sight of sentry guns and must suffer the consequences.[ 2013.10.16 19:18:15 ] (notify) Aaaarrgg, criminals are not welcome here. Leave now or be destroyed.

The heretic's Thrasher was then dealt with thanks to Amarrian Content Generators Amarr Sentry Gun, Cannibal Kane and thirstytom.
Wherever I looked at, something was going on. Travelers passing through Niarja were dazzled and flabbergasted as they found themselves in the middle of this hilarious chaos: Ionized ECM particles were traveling everywhere, a frozen corpse was being liberated from a Capsule, the reverb of various guns and missiles was being heard from all directions, frequent explosions were blasting here and there, several Marmite Cynabals were rushing from gate to gate, some random AFK freighter was being bumped towards God knows where, Pizza was attacking these freighters, Goons were attacking Pizza, while Goons were also encouraging Pizza to gank a PL freighter at Madirmilire gate... Nullsec politics had combined with the activities of Highsec Content Generators and what resulted was this unique form of chaotic PvP environment including Ganking, Anti-Ganking, conflict, excitement, emergency, surprise, humor and tears: all in Niarja, at the same moments.
While I was thinking of these, in about 5 seconds, Niarja local spiked:

Few words can describe the feeling you get when you watch these numbers increase so fast. Regardless of where you're in space (Null, Low, High), it gives a sudden feeling of shock, curiosity, excitement and uncertainty in the ominous vastness of space. Catalysts were incoming.

Lots of them.

But we were ready. Griffins, Blackbirds, Falcons, a Scorpion, a Pilgrim and other ships were ready to disrupt, annoy, shoot, jam and punish this robot-like horde of Catalysts which was now warping towards us. From my memory I can say that we really had a good amount of pilots on our side, unlike in the previous gank attempts. We could do it this time. I was "Looking At" the bumper so that I could see exactly what he was doing.
They started landing on the freighter but the gank attempt failed thanks to the DPS & ECM bombardment done by Content Generators NearNihil, Graham Oriki, Sinabbi, Azov Rassau, nuggt007, Heinrich Rotwang, Norri Matora, Vena Saris andHydodyn. We had managed to lower their DPS enough to make their target survive. Sinabbi also destroyed a Catalyst completely with his Oracle before CONCORD's arrival.

The gank was stopped successfully.

Image Source: Daopa's Twitch Stream

I saw some fireworks as CONCORD brought the divine intervention and then the Pizza fleet's criminal pods left our grid one by one.
But only a minute later, another gank fleet appeared on grid. What the hell?

This time, it was the Goons. A 4-man gank fleet was now landing at the same area!
Who were they going to attack?

...NearNihil jammed them in an impulse. As a consequence, the gank failed and the bumper Krissada survived, funnily enough. I managed to abort jamming these Goons, because I would prefer to watch that Machariel explode. Oh well. ﻿[ 2013.10.16 20:07:03 ] NearNihil > freighter is still not dead﻿[ 2013.10.16 20:07:04 ] NearNihil > gfgf﻿[ 2013.10.16 20:08:05 ] TheMeanPerson > it lived? lol
Ganker TheMeanPerson seemed to be quite surprised by the survival of the freighter.

What other result did he expect? Those Catalysts were more fail-fit than I had expected.﻿[ 2013.10.16 20:08:58 ] Vena Saris > nah i jammed the cats﻿[ 2013.10.16 20:09:00 ] Vena Saris > and they flubbed﻿[ 2013.10.16 20:09:19 ] Sinaluna Shihari > and now they have all run away﻿[ 2013.10.16 20:09:28 ] Vena Saris > they french fried when they should have pizzad

Shortly after all this period of mayhem, I logged out. That day, several freighters were already ganked before I (and others) had arrived to Niarja, but the next three Catalyst fleets had a hard time figuring out what the heck was going on, and I can assure you that every single person in Niarja was enjoying this hilarious chaos.
I hereby say "Thank you" to everyone involved during this amazing Highsec battle. It doesn't matter which alliance/corp you come from or what you do. In less than 3 hours, you made Niarja one of my all-time favorite places in Highsec and these distant memories still make me smile. After that day, I remember keeping a close eye on Niarja kill reports for several months. During one of these checks, I noticed another ganking activity, once again done by people affiliated with Pizza. Motivated by the memories from the previous chaos of Pizza's Niarja gank attempts, I literally flew to that system with my Falcon.

Image Source: www.pozniak.pl

Upon arrival, I remember seeing once again Krissada, bumping another freighter at the Madirmilire gate. Before my arrival and also the day before, their Catalysts had ganked multiple freighters and an Orca. I was eager to cause electronic trouble to their fail-fit Catalysts.Then I noticed a local spike, and what I saw was… disgusting.

The gankers were here but they were not the same ones as before. Although they were operated by a Pizza member, it was now a multiboxing fleet of boring robots. Their names were like generated by a computer program: Ammai, Ammbi, Ammci, Ammdi, Ammfi, Ammgi, Ammhi, Ammji, Wrong Target Sorry1, Wrong Target Sorry6, Wrong Target Sorry3, Wrong Target Sorry4, Wrong Target Sorry8, Wrong Target Sorry7, Wrong Target Sorry5.

D-Scan results also confirmed their arrival. I would be more impressed if their ship names had some serial numbers instead.
As they landed on their target, I started to lock as much Catalysts as I could. I also deployed two light ECM drones, ready for departure. They weren't outlaws, so I only started engaging them the moment they became criminal. I remember activating my jammers on the Catalysts quickly, one by one, and I watched the successful jamming cycles on each of them. The liquid space between my Falcon and the crime scene was now being painted with the light of strong ionized particles that were electronically punishing the gank-bots.

"It was the light of Anti-Ganking. The light of guidance brought to the darkened minds that lacked ECCM, civilization and innovation."

It wasn't the light of hatred. It was pure enjoyment. Jamming is just a means of communication. Having looked at the kill reports, I had managed to shut down the DPS of… one, two, three, four, five, six, seven Catalysts, which made their target survive. [ 2014.04.06 21:46:36 ] Adaahh Gee > failed gank? i see no yellow wreck?﻿[ 2014.04.06 21:48:52 ] Mysterious Merchant > never saw so many alt gankers in my life.

People were still shocked by the sight of this furious group of robots. Not many people had witnessed this horrible scene before. It was the "apogée" of robot-aspirancy.

Of course, getting more real people and extending the fleet size with real players would be an acceptable, 'human' solution.

﻿[ 2014.04.06 21:50:05 ] Loranna Richard > they ganked a orca some hours ago. But with those many alts.. they should waste the money in a better way.. for booze and *** ;)

﻿[ 2014.04.06 21:50:20 ] Adaahh Gee > probably trial accounts﻿[ 2014.04.06 21:50:43 ] Darth Biznaga > no their loot was t2
Despite their ruthless T2 blasters, the Catalysts had failed. The gank was stopped successfully. The robot-like fleet of gankers were given a lesson about the need for human resources, innovation and improvement of their fits and tactics.
Several weeks later, I wanted to pay another visit to these robots. The same gank fleet was online, so I headed to Niarja again.

Why hello there. I was lucky enough to find myself in the middle of a gank preparation which was definitely going to be followed by the arrival of another Catalyst fleet.
As they landed on the freighter, the Catalysts spent some time approaching it. By the time they were hugging it, I had already locked seven of them, with my ECM drones and overheated jammers ready.[ 2014.04.29 18:06:46 ] (combat) Warp scramble attempt from Ja'kay 47 [S.G10](Osprey Navy Issue) to Wrong Target Sorry9 (Catalyst)
Seconds before the freighter was engaged, a kill right was activated on one of the gank-bots. So one Catalyst was already dying before the gank had even started.[ 2014.04.29 18:06:53 ] (notify) Wrong Target Sorry4, criminals are not welcome here. Leave now or be destroyed.[ 2014.04.29 18:06:53 ] (notify) Wrong Target Sorry3, criminals are not welcome here. Leave now or be destroyed.[ 2014.04.29 18:06:53 ] (notify) Wrong Target Sorry6, criminals are not welcome here. Leave now or be destroyed.[ 2014.04.29 18:06:53 ] (notify) Wrong Target Sorry5, criminals are not welcome here. Leave now or be destroyed.[ 2014.04.29 18:06:53 ] (notify) Wrong Target Sorry1, criminals are not welcome here. Leave now or be destroyed.[ 2014.04.29 18:06:53 ] (notify) Wrong Target Sorry9, criminals are not welcome here. Leave now or be destroyed.[ 2014.04.29 18:06:53 ] (notify) Wrong Target Sorry7, criminals are not welcome here. Leave now or be destroyed.[ 2014.04.29 18:06:53 ] (notify) Wrong Target Sorry8, criminals are not welcome here. Leave now or be destroyed.[ 2014.04.29 18:06:54 ] (notify) Ammai, criminals are not welcome here. Leave now or be destroyed.[ 2014.04.29 18:06:54 ] (notify) Ammbi, criminals are not welcome here. Leave now or be destroyed.[ 2014.04.29 18:06:54 ] (notify) Ammji, criminals are not welcome here. Leave now or be destroyed.[ 2014.04.29 18:06:54 ] (notify) Ammhi, criminals are not welcome here. Leave now or be destroyed.[ 2014.04.29 18:06:54 ] (notify) Ammfi, criminals are not welcome here. Leave now or be destroyed.[ 2014.04.29 18:06:54 ] (notify) Ammdi, criminals are not welcome here. Leave now or be destroyed.[ 2014.04.29 18:06:54 ] (notify) Ammgi, criminals are not welcome here. Leave now or be destroyed.[ 2014.04.29 18:06:54 ] (notify) Ammci, criminals are not welcome here. Leave now or be destroyed.

Holy crap. I had to be quick: once again I spread the ECM on 7 Catalysts one by one. They all succeeded, again.

Having lost the DPS of at least 7 Catalysts, the gank fleet failed to inflict enough damage to kill the freighter before CONCORD's arrival. The gank was prevented and the freighter was saved. The freighter was damaged in hull but the bumping didn't continue. So I decided to go to Bahromab to see what was up (the system where Pizza ganks had their base). While I was landing on the gate, the frustrated ganker pods were also returning back to Bahromab like terrified rabbits.

An Omen was also passing by. I wonder what his reaction was like upon seeing that sudden appearance of bright red capsules on the overview.
After that day, this gank fleet didn't come to Highsec again. I think Mallak Azaria was right when he said "This nullsec group doesn't gank anymore." However, there will always be people making sure Highsec remains alive. Also, if Pizza decides to do it again, it will be a pleasure to see them once again in Niarja.
These fun memories, among many others, proved once again that both gankers and anti-gankers are needed for a healthy Highsec. I hope it also showed that it is possible to do something against gankers. Yes, you need patience and dedication to do it, but some people regularly cry and complain on the EVE Online forums saying that it's impossible to do anything about them, which is wrong. Like Blackhuey once said, simply pick a side, create content, be a suicide ganker or an antiganker, or that guy who whores on Concord and salvages 20 Catalysts every 15 minutes. But keep the perspective that you are playing a competitive PVP MMO, and the aim of the game is ultimately to outwit, outplay and/or space-murder other pilots. Be excellent to each other, win or lose.
Succeed or not, as long as you're out there fighting your enemies while keeping it in-game, having fun and improving your tactics, you're doing it right.
In this post, as you may have noticed, most of the ECM Anti-Gankers in Niarja were using ships like Blackbird, Falcon, Pilgrim and Scorpion. However, that doesn't mean small ships are useless. In the next post, I will give some simple examples about how even smallest ships can be used for fighting the gankers!
o/